SAVE THE DATES for these upcoming events:

Wednesday, April 1st – Dan Pratt, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus (Education) and Senior Scholar (Medicine), Department of Educational Studies, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver Campus

Lecture: Scholarly teaching: It's all about learning!

10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (C2860)

The path to scholarly teaching is bumpy, to say the least. We bounce between trying to be the teacher we wanted when we were learners, and advice from others about what effective teaching means for them. Eventually, we come to the realization that scholarly teaching must have regard for evidence and theory about learning without surrendering our personal style as teachers. This session will present scholarly findings related to prior knowledge, emotions, testing, and feedback that can be adapted to every style and every perspective on teaching. You should not try to be someone else when becoming a scholarly teacher. But you should try to use what is known about adult learning.

Thursday, April 2nd – Kevin W. Eva, Ph.D.

Director and Senior Scientist in the Centre for Health Education Scholarship and Director of Educational research and Scholarship in the Department of Medicine at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver Campus.

SAVE THE DATES!

OSLER's Mission

The mission of the Office for Scholarship in Learning and Education Research (OSLER) is to enhance Penn State College of Medicine's capacity to perform cutting-edge educational research, inform institutional decision making on educational matters and further the field of health-sciences education.

Aims

To fulfill our mission, OSLER participates in the following activities:

Engaging in cutting-edge educational research by publishing in peer-reviewed journals, presenting research findings at state and national conferences, presenting information about educational innovations at Penn State Hershey Medical Center at regional, national, and international conferences.

Supporting faculty educational scholarship by providing data from our IRB approved data registry. Stakeholders including faculty, staff, and medical or physician assistant students may complete an application and conduct a research study particularly as it pertains to evaluating the outcomes of our educational innovations.

Providing consultation to members of the faculty, staff, and students on research design, data analysis, and manuscript preparation.

Participants received illustrations of questions that could be posed to examine for both short-term and long-term educational program success. In addition, types of data that could be collected as well as methods for analyzing the collected data was shared. A framework of Before-During-After was shared as a method of determining if an educational program was "successful".

Publishing Your Teaching Innovations (November & December 2014)

This workshop was designed for faculty interested in publishing educational innovations in peer-reviewed literature. Participants learned about key criteria for writing up a manuscript of their innovations for increasing the likelihood of getting it accepted for publication.

Getting Started with Education Scholarship: Asking the Questions and Planning the First Steps (August & October 2014)

This workshop was intended for busy faculty members experiencing the pressures of teaching in addition to their clinical, administrative and research responsibilities. Participants focused on first steps in building scholarship into already-planned teaching activities, using the principle of "making it count twice." Through a series of hands-on activities, participants considered important concepts in formulating a focused and relevant question, and developing a plan to collect data that can be used in scholarly communications and presentations. Participants were invited to come to the workshop considering their teaching activities with ideas for possible scholarly pursuits.

OSLER Senior Scholar

Presented to Carol F. Whitfield, B.S., M.S., Ph.D.

(October 21, 2014)

The Senior Scholar in the Office for Scholarship in Learning and Education Research is awarded to Dr. Whitfield who has made, and continues to make, numerous contributions to medical education in the course of her distinguished career. She worked tirelessly to introduce teaching methods that actively engage medical students into PSU's medical curriculum. She held many leadership roles and for close to a decade, served as Associate Dean for Pre-clerkship Education. She distinguished herself as an excellent educator and won numerous teaching awards. Dr. Whitfield's scholarly contributions relate to investigating the effects of active learning methods on student achievement and clinical reasoning. She is a charter member of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) and served on its Board of Directors for several years. She is currently engaged in several projects pertaining to assessment, critical thinking, and clinical reasoning

In the News:

Inaugural Celebration of OSLER

On April 17, 2014, More than fifty faculty and staff members of Penn State Hershey College of Medicine and Hershey Medical Center attended and participated in conversations on important topics with a well-renowned medical education researcher, Dr. Adina L. Kalet, (@AKaletMD) professor of medicine and surgery from New York University.

Dr. Kalet states that "in this unsettling and exciting time of rapid change in the U.S. health care system, medical education researchers, if well positioned and prepared, may have an opportunity to redraw the map of medical training to meet modern realities while preserving the core values of our profession." Kalet AL. The State of Medical Education Research. Virtual Mentor 2007; 9: 285-9.

Topics of discussion included Dr. Kalet's insights on the State of Medical Education Research, Key Ingredients for Success in Medical Education Research, what OSLER can offer and how a data registry can help. Insights into remediation practices and effectiveness were also shared.

Contact Information

Penn State College of Medicine Office of Medical Education, H123 500 University Drive Hershey, PA 17033

717-531-0003, ext. 280809 – Office 717-531-4786 – Fax

Paul Haidet, M.D., M.P.H. Director of Medical Education Research

Paul M. Haidet, M.D., M.P.H., is a graduate of Penn State, where he earned his BS and MD degrees and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine. He left Penn State in 1995 to pursue fellowship training in general internal medicine and a master's degree in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health. After that, he spent 11 years on the faculty of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, before returning to Penn State in 2009 as a professor in the departments of Medicine, Humanities, and Public Health Sciences. Dr. Haidet has published widely on a variety of topics related to education and teaching, communication, and the humanistic care of patients, and he has won a number of regional, national, and international awards for his work. He is a past president of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare, and has served on the editorial board of the journal Medical Education.

Klara K. Papp, Ph.D., earned her degree in educational psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She joins Penn State College of Medicine after serving as the Associate Dean for Assessment at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Dr. Papp is a deputy editor for the Journal of General Internal Medicine and guest editor for its 2013 Education issue. She served on the National Council of the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM) and chaired its research committee. She is a recipient of the CDIM's Charles H. Griffith, III, Educational Research Award. Dr. Papp is a leader in competency-based assessment design that includes both qualitative and quantitative assessments of learner performance. In her work she collaborates with course and clerkship faculty to guide the preparation of test questions and to ensure fairness in scoring them. In addition, she provides expertise in the design of methods to collect curriculum feedback and inform improvements that occur in real time and from year-to-year.

Carol F. Whitfield, B.S., M.S., Ph.D. Senior Scholar, OSLER

Carol F. Whitfield, Ph.D., the inaugural Senior Scholar in OSLER, received her Ph.D. degree at George Washington University School of Medicine in physiology and biochemistry. She was drawn into medical education early in her distinguished career, first as the Director of the Physiology Course, and Director of the Multidisciplinary Labs. She participated in several task forces charged with engaging medical students more actively in learning and introducing innovative educational methods into the curriculum. Dr. Whitfield, with colleagues, designed and implemented the new PBL track at PSUCOM, leading to the first hybrid curriculum in medical education. She had many leadership roles and for close to a decade, served as Associate Dean for Pre-clerkship Education and distinguished herself as an excellent educator winning numerous teaching awards. She provided leadership in the redesign of the curriculum implemented in August 2013.

On the national scene, Dr. Whitfield's numerous contributions relate to investigating the effects of active learning methods in medical education on student achievement and clinical reasoning. She is a charter member of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) and served on the Board of Directors for several years. She is a reviewer for Academic Medicine and other medical education journals.

Renee earned her BS degree in Business with a concentration in Accounting from Nazareth College in Rochester, NY. She joined the Department of Medical Education at Penn State College of Medicine in 2011 in a part-time role in the Registrar's Office. She also participated in the Standardized Patient Program portraying a wide variety of patients during simulated patient encounters with medical students, nurses, Anesthesiologists, physicians, fellows and residents. She assumed full-time responsibilities as Administrative Support Coordinator for the Office for Scholarship in Learning and Research (OSLER) and the Medical Student Research Program (MSR). In addition, Renee involves herself in the education of others by performing in skits as part of the Kienle Drama Group in the Humanities Department.

717-531-0003, ext. 280809 rseibel@hmc.psu.edu

Chengwu Yang, M.D., M.S., Ph.D. Measurement Specialist

Chengwu Yang is an experienced psychometrician, measurement specialist, and clinical biostatistician. He earned his M.D. with a minor in Health Statistics from Tongji Medical University in 1993, M.S. in Medical Statistics from Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences in 2000, and Ph.D. in Biostatistics (Psychometrics focus) from Medical University of South Carolina in 2009. Since 2004, Dr. Yang has been focusing on measurement issues in medical sciences, and has been serving as a psychometrician/clinimetrician/measurement specialist on multiple research projects, including the movement disorders society-sponsored revision of the unified Parkinson's disease rating scale (MDS-UPDRS). At Penn State, he collaborates with investigators from in a number of fields, and has been involved in a number of successful grant applications and publications. His interest in medical education has led to several projects which include a recent publication of the Quality of Report Scale (QRS) for radiology residents.

SCHOLARSHIP in EDUCATION AWARD

The Penn State College of Medicine Scholarship in Education Award is designed to recognize scholarly contributions to education by Penn State University College of Medicine faculty during the preceding year. To receive this award, faculty submit a written synopsis of a scholarly teaching activity. Each synopsis is peer reviewed by an internal committee as well as three national education experts external to Penn State. The Scholarship in Education Award therefore represents an important external validation of each recipient's scholarly contributions to education.